New siren tones optimised for increased detectability distances of emergency vehicles

Abstract

Sirens from emergency vehicles are particularly annoying for people living in the vicinities of emergency centres. In order to reduce their discomfort, the present work computes the optimal output power and frequency content of the sirens by taking into account the car noise reduction, the background noise inside the car and the hearing threshold. The combination of these parameters gives rise to frequency windows where the sirens are more effective, hence new siren tones are proposed and their annoyance is assessed through a jury test procedure. The new tones can either increase the detectability distance by 40% without increasing their annoyance or reduce their sound pressure level by 3 dB while keeping their effectiveness in being detected.